New Delhi: All non-entitled central
government employees have been allowed to travel by air while availing Leave
Travel Concession (LTC) with a condition that reimbursement in such cases shall
be restricted to the fare of their entitled class of train or actual
expense.
The Ministry of Personnel had
recently eased norms for processing claims of LTC -- which allows grant of
leave and ticket reimbursement to eligible central government employees to
travel to their home towns and other places.
"Government employees not
entitled to travel by air may travel by any airline. However, reimbursement in
such cases shall be restricted to the fare of their entitled class of train,
transport or actual expense, whichever is less," an order issued by the Ministry
said.
The move comes after the government
received a number of queries in this regard. In many cases, employees did not
have railway station or good road network to their home towns and they had
requested for permission to travel by air to save time, which was being denied,
officials said.
Now, they will be allowed to travel
by air and by any airline, they said. At present, those entitled to travel by
air have to mandatorily travel by Air India.
A government servant may also apply
for advance for himself or his family members 65 days before the proposed date
of the outward journey and he or she would be required to produce the tickets
within ten days of the withdrawal of advance, irrespective of the date of
commencement of the journey, as per the new norms.
There are about 50 lakh central
government employees.
All central government employees
have been asked to share photos and interesting details of their holidays.
The DoPT has decided to put a limit
of one month for verification of LTC claim after the LTC bill is submitted by
government employee for settlement and final payment.
"Efforts should be made to
reduce the duration of processing of LTC applications or claims at the
earliest. The maximum time limit should be strictly adhered to and non-
compliance of time limit should be adequately explained," its directive
said.
